Teaching Staff

Duncan Thompson

Head of School / Screenwriting

Duncan Thompson has script edited over $35 million dollars worth of produced feature films.

Formerly a Project Manager (VP of Production & Development) at the Australian Film Commission, Duncan has worked with industry greats such as Jane Campion, John Sayles, Gus van Sant and Oscar nominee Robert Festinger guiding projects, such as Rowan Wood’s Little Fish (starring Cate Blanchett) and Cate Shortland’s Cannes hit Somersault, through the New South Wales Film and Televesion Office’s Aurora intensive screenplay workshop.

Duncan created the SPAAmart feature finance market in November 2003, bringing Australia and New Zealand’s top feature film projects together with the world’s top film financiers. Fourteen of the projects Thompson selected, in his three years as Market Director, have been produced and financed including the Sundance Festival hit Clubland, and the highly-acclaimed Australian film Noise.

Duncan has taught screenwriting in Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, London, Melbourne and Southern Spain, and whilst living in Paris, was signed to ICM France as a script doctor and rewriter.

As a script consultant, Duncan has worked with many of Australia’s top producers such as Lynda House (producer of Muriel’s Wedding) and David Lightfoot (producer of Wolf Creek).

As directing apprentice to Rolf de Heer, Thompson recorded sound and effects on Cannes Competition entrant Dance Me to My Song, and The Old Man Who Read Love Stories.